Ah, Yes...Another Confusing Morning In Korea

My landlord – well I assume he’s my landlord – keeps coming to my house and EVERY time he comes, it’s while I’m either getting in or out of the shower which is SO obnoxious. He must stand there and knock for a long time every day because, by the time I hear him, he’s knocking like he’s being chased by a murderer or something. Then, by the time I throw some clothes on, he’s shaking my door so hard that I'm worried he might tear it off.

I open the door with an annoyed, confused look on my face and he says something in Korean, as if I understand. I let him in because whatever…and then he comes in to do totally useless things. He’s currently in my bathroom changing a light bulb that already worked. Why? I don’t know. And he smells like cigarettes so now my apartment will too. Also, he came and got my little pink slippers from under my kitchen table and wore them (he looked really pretty) on my WET bathroom floor. Then he put that back in the kitchen…so now both floors are wet and dirty. Aaaaand now he’s gone. K thanks weirdo….I’m sure I’ll see you at the same inconvenient time tomorrow so you can perform yet another useless task!

Hummmmmmmmm...

This weekend I got to try something I’d been wanting to experience for a long time. Some friends of mine were going to a meditation lesson at a Buddhist temple so I tagged along with them. It was so cool! 

First, the monk gave us an introduction and explained how to sit and what to do. We started with a 20-minute seated meditation and we were supposed to focus on breathing. The idea was to breathe in and out slowly and count our breaths to help us focus but it was INSANELY difficult to not think about other things. Then the monk banged some little stick thing (as you can see, I’m not too familiar with the Buddhist terminology yet) to let us know that it was time to stand up. Even though it wasn’t that loud, I wasn’t expecting the sound so I jumped about a mile when she hit it. We then stood up and did a slow walking meditation for 10 minutes. We walked in circles around the room, following the monk like a line of quiet, reflective little ducklings. She went slower than the rest of us and I was right behind her so I could feel people gaining on me from behind which would normally make me laugh but I, Shannon O’Brien, held in the urge. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever successfully done that in my life. That’s one small step for Uncle Shan and one giant leap for loud, crazy people everywhere!

            Afterwards, we had tea with the monk so we could talk and she answered our questions. Since I didn’t really know much about Buddhism to begin with, I didn’t really have any questions to ask but I learned a lot just by listening to everyone else. I’m so excited to go back to the class and learn more about it. Seriously…they know what’s up.